Motorized machines include driver circuits for controlling the operations of one or more motors. Each of these driver circuits may include a high side gate driver and a low side gate driver. The high side gate driver is configured to convert low voltage input signals (e.g., less than 15V) to high voltage signals for delivery at the gate of a high side switch where voltage may swing from 0V to 600V. The low side gate driver is configured to deliver low voltage input signals to the gate of a low side switch (e.g., less than 15V). These high voltage signals and low voltage signals are delivered to a motorized load for controlling one or more motor operations.
During an electrostatic discharge (ESD) event, the high side gate driver may receive a large amount of current in a short period of time. If the ESD current is not properly dissipated, it may create a large amount of voltage build-up within the high side gate driver. This high voltage build-up may cause damages to the high side gate driver, and it may potentially be hazardous to human operators who operate the motorized machines. To prevent high ESD voltage from building up within the high side gate driver, several ESD protection devices may be deployed. However, these ESD protection devices are typically large in size and may be area inefficient where the driver circuits have significant area constrains.